The worst recession in decades wasn't enough to make big banks relent in their pursuit of income, but Hurricane Sandy apparently gave them pause: Several banks have stepped up to make things easier for their customers during their current time of need.

There's nothing more expensive than spending money you don't have. That, of course, is a lesson you might learn the hard way if you carry a balance on a high-interest credit card. But spending beyond your means can be a pricey proposition even with a debit card.

Despite payday lenders' well-deserved reputations for charging insanely high rates for the short-term loans, if you overdraft your plain-vanilla bank account, you'll get zapped by an even more usurious system.

Chances are you've been pitched a retail card more than once. Usually it goes something like this: "Will you be saving 10% using your [name of store] card today?" The hope is you'll find the prospect of a discount alluring enough to sign up. But should you?

Americans feeling disenchanted (or worse) with their banks after years of ever-increasing fees are increasingly turning to a cheap alternative financial tool provided by the world's largest retailer: the Walmart MoneyCard.

Practically nobody ever reads the disclosures that came with a bank account, and that's no surprise -- they average 111 pages long. That's way too much fine print, say Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Jack Reed (D-R.I.), who are calling on banks to cut those disclosures down to just one easy-to-comprehend page.

A year after the Federal Reserve enacted new rules to rein in abusive bank overdraft practices, fees remain high and some institutions actually have slapped on additional penalties, according to a new survey by the Consumer Federation of America.

The consumer advocates at the Center for Responsible Lending have released a checklist of tough questions people should ask their banks to make sure their needs are being met -- and and to ensure they aren't paying unnecessary fees.